Taconic Exploits Size Advantage in Sweet 16 Win
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – The Taconic boys basketball team Monday used a 20-2 run that spanned the first and second quarters to take control of the game and went on to a 70-47 win over Pembroke in the Division 3 State Tournament Sweet 16.
Christian Maturevich scored 19 points, and Jamal Sistrunk added 17 as fourth-seeded Taconic (16-6) earned a berth in the state quarter-finals against either East Boston (16-6) or No. 5 Norwell (19-2), who meet on Wednesday night.
The Thunder took the lead on a bucket in the post by Maturevich in the opening minutes for a 4-3 advantage and never looked back in winning for the fifth time in six games.
Taconic pounded the ball into the paint early on against the Titans (14-8), not needing a 3-pointer until Sistrunk’s triple early in the second quarter – Taconic’s only 3 of the first half.
“That’s what the game plan was,” Taconic coach Bill Heaphy said. “We worked on it in practice. We felt we had a size advantage.
“We’ve got to do a good job of recognizing when our bigs are open and making a concerted effort to get it in there. And I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”
Kyle McGrath scored nine points, and Martin Boua finished with four points to go with seven rebounds and three blocks as Taconic took advantage of their size.
The knockout run started when Maturevich drove the middle of the lane and scooped the ball up and in to make it 11-5 midway through the first quarter. He ended up with eight points in the period and 10 points and two assists in the first half.
He set up Elijah Harewood (eight points) for a bucket to end the first with Taconic on top, 17-7.
The Thunder then opened the second quarter with 12 straight points.
That stretch started with Sistrunk’s 3-pointer about a minute into the period and ended with another Maturevich assist, this time to McGrath, to make it 29-7.
It was a 23-point margin at half-time, but Pembroke came out strong in the third, scoring the first seven points of the half and using a 7-2 spurt later in the quarter to get within 18.
But Taconic never allowed it to get much closer.
And a 14-2 run early in the fourth quarter put the game completely out of reach at 64-35, allowing Heaphy to get his starters out of the game. Ceasar Santos scored five of his 11 points during that stretch to help dash any hopes Pembroke had for a rally.
Heaphy gave a lot of credit to his bench for helping build the big lead in the first place.
“I thought our second unit that went in there – Quentin [Christiopher], Elijah [Harewood], Murph [Luke Murphy] for a few minutes and Nate [Reynolds] – I just thought when they went in, we got a little more of a lead,” Heaphy said. “They were hustling and playing really hard defensively.
“I thought that was huge. Those guys are really coming along. And it’s a really good time to strengthen our bench.”
It also was huge for the Thunder to be able to play through some of the distractions on a night that saw the Pittsfield police get involved with some of the fans and ultimately saw two Pembroke fans ejected from the game.
“We talk about [distractions] all the time,” Heaphy said. “It’s hard, though. I thought, for the most part, it was pretty good. I had to remind them of a few things.
“But there were plenty of distractions, that’s for sure.”